Kimberly Butt set to make her debut at the VDM

Canterbury-based harness racing trainer-driver Kimberly Butt will get to experience a very different kind of race meeting when she competes at the acclaimed Vincent Delaney Memorial in England this weekend.

Now in its 13th year, the VDM, as it’s known, has become a major international event, with thousands expected to swarm to Dunstall Park in Wolverhampton in the West Midlands on August 10 and 11. Vincent Delaney was a harness racing enthusiast who died from a heart attack at just 27 years old. His brothers James and Derek then set up the meeting in his honour.

Hailing from one of harness racing’s great families, Kimberly Butt is excited at what’s ahead as she follows in the footsteps of her father Anthony Butt, her uncle Cran Dalgety, 10-time Kiwi champion driver Dexter Dunn and other high profile Kiwis.

“I knew about it through Dad and Dex going a few years ago and I followed it and kept up with it so when I got the invite I was thrilled,” she told Campbell’s Comments, “and since I got the invite the amount of people who have said ‘it’s the best thing ever’ is unreal.”

The now Australian-based Anthony Butt, a multiple Group 1-winning driver who won three New Zealand Cups, went there in 2014 and 2022.

When Dalgety was invited the meeting was held at the now defunct Portmarnock Raceway in Dublin. It then moved to Tir Raceway in Wales for three years. This is the first time it’s being held at Wolverhampton (pictured above).

For Dalgety it was an experience he’ll never forget.

“We crammed three weeks into three days,” he laughs, “they treated us like royalty. We went everywhere in Dublin, did the Guinness factory tour, the lot.”

“They could party!”

Now Kimberley Butt gets to see first hand what she’s only heard about previously. It was her father’s contacts with Derek Delaney that helped her get an invite. She and partner Jonny Cox left New Zealand about a week ago,

She’ll compete in a new race at the meeting, the Bernie Kelly International Ladies Charity Race. Money raised will go to the charity Cancer Trials. Bernie Kelly served as racing secretary, organiser and stalwart supporter of the Delaney family since the inception of the VDM Racing Weekend. She died in 2019 after a tough battle with cancer.

“Bernie was a firecracker of a woman who was full of life,” says VDM Chairman Derek Delaney, “and her presence is felt not only on the race day itself but during the whole planning process. It feels right to be able to do this in her honour.”

Butt will be joined in the race by Charlie Flanagan, Chelsie O’Driscoll and Grace Kelly (all Ireland), Alexis Laidler, Claire Bousfield and Vicky Gill (all United Kingdom), Jazmin Arnold (USA) and Lauren Tritton (Australia). Between them they have won over 1600 races.

So what’s the quality of racing like?

“It’s at a lower level really,” says Dalgety, “if they did a 1:56 or 1:57 mile they think it was enormous.”

But it’s the event that the VDM is all about.

“The way people were dressed and the facilities were world class,” says Dalgety, “the grandstands, the restaurants and everything they put on is five star.”

While Kimberly’s looking forward to the weekend, apparently not everyone is entirely happy about the arrangement.

“Dad keeps telling me how jealous he is that he’s not coming.”

by Dave Di Somma, for Harness News Desk